I joined the Grenadier Guards in the winter of 1964, arrived at Pirbright on a cold and frosty morning, 'what have I let myself in for I thought' my drill instructor was L/Sgt Woodfield, the winter was a cold one, with the parade ground in ice most mornings for the first parade, but no excuse was taken if you fell over, �Grenadier's don�t fall over� my drill instructor always shouted at us.
After passing out from the depot I was posted to the 1st Battalion Queens Company in Cyprus, on arrival at the camp I was greeted by Cpl Pete Cox �move yourself move yourself now� I was taken to the Queens Company lines. The Company commander then was Major Gordon Lennox, we left Cyprus for Wuppertal Germany, and returned to the UK in 1966, good old Caterham Barracks was now going to be our new home.
Took my driving test , 4 weeks of driving about the country side, such a life, my instructor was Trev Rolfe then a L/Sgt, did my Cpls course and passed, then posted to Sandhurst with the Demonstration Platoon in the winter of 1966, doing an exercise in Libya, a few months later promoted to L/Sgt, did the usual royal duties, including escort to the colour in 1967, was selected stand Guard on the new colours with Harry Thacker when the Queen visited Caterham Barracks, I believe that was in 1967,
Moved to 3 Company prior to our posting to the gulf, the company was short of NCOs at the time, we were reinforced with a platoon from the Welsh Guards which put us up to full strength, the Welsh Guards Guards platoon Sgt was (Sgt John), whilst in the Gulf I took the opportunity to visit Iran with Tosh Ash, who later went onto G sqd, sadly he is no longer with us. RIP
Returned to the UK and Chelsea Barracks, the Regimental Police. Northern Ireland was the next posting; was attached to the Royal Military Police, which took on various duties in place of the local police force, we would see the lads on the streets when rushing about in our land rover, used to think how fortunate I was, with my job.
We returned to the UK in 1970, when shortly after departed the Battalion with very fond memories. |
